The Party (film)

The Party
original film poster by Jack Davis
Directed by	Blake Edwards
Produced by	Blake Edwards
Written by	Blake Edwards Frank Waldman Tom Waldman
Starring	Peter Sellers Claudine Longet Gavin MacLeod J. Edward McKinley Denny Miller Steve Franken
Music by	Don Black Henry Mancini
Cinematography	Lucien Ballard
Editing by	Ralph E. Winters
Studio	The Mirisch Corporation
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	April 4, 1968 (1968-04-04)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Party is a 1968 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, starring Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet. The film has a very loose structure, and essentially serves as a series of set pieces for Sellers's improvisational comedy talents.^[1] The comedy is based on a fish out of water premise, in which a bungling Indian actor accidentally gets invited to a lavish Hollywood dinner party and "makes terrible mistakes based upon ignorance of Western ways."^[2]

The Party is considered a classic comedic cult film.^[3][4] Edwards biographers Peter Lehman and William Luhr said, "The Party may very well be one of the most radically experimental films in Hollywood history; in fact it may be the single most radical film since D.W. Griffith's style came to dominate the American cinema."^[5][6] Film historian Saul Austerlitz wrote, "Despite the offensiveness of Sellers's brownface routine, The Party is one of his very best films... Taking a page from Tati, this is neorealist comedy, purposefully lacking a director's guiding eye: look here, look there. The screen is crammed full of activity, and the audience's eyes are left to wander where they may."^[7]

Plot

The film opens in the desert, and it is revealed that a film crew is filming an ambush scene for a costume epic similar to Gunga Din. Unknown Indian actor Hrundi V. Bakshi (Sellers) has a small role in which he sounds a bugle to start the attack. Ignoring directions, he continues to play even after being shot dozens of times, and he does not stop even after the director (Herbert Ellis) yells cut. Bakshi continues to hamper the filming, until he accidentally blows up an enormous set, a fort rigged with explosives for an upcoming scene depicting its attack. The director fires Bakshi immediately and calls the studio head, General Fred Clutterbuck (J. Edward McKinley), about the mishap. Clutterbuck writes down Bakshi's name in order to blacklist him, but he inadvertently writes Bakshi's name on the guest list of his upcoming dinner party.

During the opening credits, Bakshi receives his invitation in the mail and drives to the party at Clutterbuck's home. Upon arrival at the party, Bakshi tries to rinse dirt off his shoe in a large fountain that flows through the house, but he loses his shoe. He spends about five minutes trying to retrieve it as it floats through the house and gets launched onto a serving platter.

Bakshi has awkward interactions with everyone at the party, including Clutterbuck's dog Cookie. He meets famous Western movie actor "Wyoming Bill" Kelso (Denny Miller), who gives Bakshi an autograph. Bakshi later accidentally shoots Kelso with a toy gun, but Kelso does not see who did it. Bakshi tries to feed a caged macaw some bird food from a container marked "Birdie Num Num." He ends up dumping the food everywhere as two guests stare. Bakshi then accidentally activates a panel of electronics that control the intercom, a fountain (soaking a guest), and a retractable bar (which Bakshi closes while Clutterbuck is sitting at it). After Kelso hurts Bakshi's hand while shaking it, Bakshi sticks his hand into a bowl of crushed ice containing caviar. While waiting to wash his hand in the bathroom, he meets aspiring actress Michèle Monet (Longet), who came with producer C.S. Divot (Gavin McLeod). Bakshi shakes Divot's hand, and Divot then shakes hands with other guests, passing around the fishy odor, even back to Bakshi after he has washed his hand.

Dinner is served, but at Bakshi's place setting right by the kitchen door, his chair is missing. He gets a very low chair that puts his chin near the table. Several mishaps occur while an increasingly drunk waiter named Levinson (Steven Franken) tries to serve dinner and fights with the other staff. During the main course, Bakshi's roast Cornish game hen accidentally catapults off his fork and becomes impaled on a guest's tiara. Bakshi asks Levinson to retrieve his meal, but the woman's wig comes off along with her tiara, as she obliviously engages in conversation. Levinson ends up brawling with other waitstaff, and dinner is disrupted.

Bakshi apologizes to his hosts, then needs to go to the bathroom. He wanders through the house, opening doors and barging in on various servants and guests in embarrassing situations. He ends up in the back yard, where he accidentally sets off the sprinklers. At Divot's insistence, Monet gives an impromptu guitar performance of "Nothing to Lose," to impress the guests. Bakshi ends up upstairs, where he takes a toy gun from Clutterbuck's young son. He then uses it to save Monet from Divot's unwanted sexual advances by dislodging Divot's toupee with the gun. Bakshi finally finds a bathroom, but he breaks the toilet, drops a painting in it, gets toilet paper everywhere, and floods the bathroom. To avoid getting caught, Bakshi sneaks out on the roof and falls into the pool. Monet leaps in to save him, and they force him to drink alcohol to warm up. Bakshi has never had alcohol before, and he struggles to put on a dry red terry cloth jumpsuit. He finds Monet crying in the next room and consoles her. Divot bursts in and demands Monet leave with him. Monet says no, and Divot cancels her screen test for him the next day. Bakshi convinces her to stay and have a good time with him. They return to the party in borrowed clothes as a Russian dance troupe arrives. The party gets wilder, and Bakshi offers to retract the bar to make room for dancing. He accidentally opens a retractable floor with a pool underneath, causing guests to fall in the pool. Levinson makes more floors retract, and more guests fall in. Clutterbuck's daughter arrives with friends and a baby elephant painted with hippie slogans. Bakshi takes offense and asks them to wash the elephant. The entire house is soon filled with soap bubbles from the cleaning.

Back at his home, Divot suddenly realizes that Bakshi is the fired actor who blew up the set, and he races back to the party. As the band plays on, Clutterbuck tries to save his suds-covered fine art paintings. The air conditioning blows suds everywhere as the guests dance to hippie music, and Clutterbuck's distraught wife falls into the pool twice. Divot pulls up as police and fire department personnel work to resolve everything. Bakshi apologizes one last time to Clutterbuck as Divot reveals who Bakshi is, but Clutterbuck accidentally chokes a waiter instead of Bakshi. Kelso gives Bakshi an autographed photo and Stetson hat as Bakshi and Monet leave in Bakshi's Morgan three-wheeler car. Outside her apartment, Bakshi and Monet appear on the verge of admitting that they love each other, but agree to meet the next week. Bakshi gives Monet the hat, and she says he can come get it any time. Bakshi then drives off as his car backfires.

Production

The Party was the only non-Pink Panther collaboration between Sellers and Edwards. Producer Walter Mirisch knew that Sellers and Edwards were considered liabilities; in his autobiography, Mirisch wrote, "Blake had achieved a reputation as a very expensive director, particularly after The Great Race." ^[8] Sellers had played another Indian man in his hit film The Millionairess, and a similar klutz as Inspector Clouseau.

The film's interiors were shot on a set, at the MGM lot. The original script was only 63 pages in length.^[4] Edwards later said it was the shortest script he ever shot from, and the majority of the content in the film was improvised on set.

The film draws much inspiration from the works of Jacques Tati; Bakshi arrives at the party in a Morgan three-wheeler similar to Monsieur Hulot's cyclecar in Monsieur Hulot's Holiday. The entire film storyline is reminiscent of the Royal Garden restaurant sequence of Playtime; and the comedic interaction with inanimate objects and gadgets parallels several of Tati's films, especially Mon Oncle.^[9]

Soundtrack

The score of The Party was composed by Henry Mancini, including the song "Nothing to Lose." Mancini, commenting on audience reactions, noted, "That's what I get for writing a nice song for a comedy. Nobody's going to hear a note of it."^[1] During a scene later in the film, the band can be heard playing "It Had Better Be Tonight," which was a song Mancini composed for the first Pink Panther film. The compact disc was originally released on August 20, 1995 by BMG Victor.

Track listing

1. "The Party" [Vocal] 2:14
2. "Brunette in Yellow" 2:56
3. "Nothing to Lose [Instrumental]" 3:18
4. "Chicken Little Was Right" 2:54
5. "Candleleight On Crystal" 3:05
6. "Birdie Num-Num" 2:21
7. "Nothing To Lose [Vocal]" 2:25
8. "The Happy Pipers" 2:17
9. "Party Poop" 2:34
10. "Elegant" 4:44
11. "Wiggy" 3:02
12. "The Party [Instrumental]" 3:12

Cast

The full cast listing (in credit order) is as follows:

• Peter Sellers as Hrundi V. Bakshi
• Claudine Longet as Michele Monet
• Natalia Borisova as Ballerina
• Jean Carson as Nanny
• Marge Champion as Rosalind Dunphy
• Al Checco as Bernard Stein
• Corinne Cole as Janice Kane
• Dick Crockett as Wells
• Frances Davis as Maid
• Danielle De Metz as Stella D'Angelo
• Herb Ellis as Director
• Paul Ferrara as Ronnie Smith
• Steve Franken as Levinson
• Kathe Green as Molly Clutterbuck
• Allen Jung as Cook
• Sharron Kimberly as Princess Helena
• James Lanphier as Harry
• Buddy Lester as Davey Kane
• Stephen Liss as Geoffrey Clutterbuck
• Gavin MacLeod as C.S. Divot
• Jerry Martin as Bradford
• Fay McKenzie as Alice Clutterbuck
• J. Edward McKinley as Fred Clutterbuck
• Denny Miller as 'Wyoming Bill' Kelso
• Elianne Nadeau as Wiggy
• Thomas W. Quine as Congressman Dunphy
• Timothy Scott as Gore Pontoon
• Ken Wales as Assistant Director
• Carol Wayne as June Warren

• Donald R. Frost as Drummer
• Helen Kleeb as Secretary
• George Winters as Cliff Hanger
• Linda Gaye Scott as Starlet

Vin Scully is uncredited onscreen, but his voice can be heard announcing a Los Angeles Dodgers game on the kitchen radio.^[10]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Champlin, Charles (March 15, 1968). An open invitation to play it off the cuff. Time
2. ^ Lehman, Peter, Luhr, William (1981). Blake Edwards, p. 140. Ohio University Press, ISBN 9780821406052
3. ^ Stafford, Jeff. Cult Movies: The Party via Turner Classic Movies
4. ^ ^{a b} Aushenker, Michael (June 25, 2008). 'The Party' to Remember: Blake Edwards' Cult Classic Turns 40! Palisadian-Post
5. ^ Wasson, Sam (2009). A splurch in the kisser: the movies of Blake Edwards. Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 9780819569158 , p. 130
6. ^ Lehman, Peter; Luhr, William (1989). Returning to the Scene: Blake Edwards, Volume 2. Ohio University Press, ISBN 9780821409176
7. ^ Austerlitz, Saul (2010). Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy, p. 198. Chicago Review Press, ISBN 9781556529511
8. ^ Mirisch, Walter (2008). I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299226409. 
9. ^ Robinson, Tasha (April 19, 2002). The Party (DVD) The A.V. Club
10. ^ Koseluk, Chris (April 16, 2008). The voice of generations. The Hollywood Reporter

External links

• The Party at the Internet Movie Database
• The Party at AllRovi